Vee

The TARDIS.

Because you're wrong like always! In seriousness, their priorities for Carly post-Brown and Braun had changed. Tamara had challenged them by generating heat and trouble with Ted King/Lorenzo and was vocally not happy in the Sonny/Carly romance anymore. She had enough popularity and pull to make things difficult. They took that out on her in the writing (the incredibly vile stuff written for the men and Michael about Carly in early '04) before she finally quit. Then MB (allegedly) wanted to be tested with Sam and other women, and then Guza hit on adding Kate, which became a popular love interest for Sonny, and began slowly building his cherished Dante long-form story which was allegedly in the works for years before they cast DZ. And meanwhile Jason just did Jason things with Sam and then Elizabeth. So all that was Guza's main event. They didn't have room for a canvas where a third Carly became as massive and influential a force as both Sarah and Tamara had been, pulling focus from the male leads and stories that Guza preferred to prioritize. So Carly retained a considerable role, but it was largely not about all her love life. She was the town troublemaker again, but happily married to Jax. And a lot of that frankly worked for me for a long time.

Carly had transitioned to a different role at that time in the mid-late 2000s but she was no placeholder. She absolutely is today. They literally told the audience, either onscreen, in print or both that Jax was frequenting hookers to get his rocks off post-Brenda when he wasn't in a pairing. That's how little Guza gave a shít about him.

I don't think it was a placeholder so much as simply a B-couple and not a big priority for the show. They parked them there and LW's bulk of story came from Carly being a mischief maker outside of the family unit, making trouble on her own or still in and out of Sonny and Jason's orbit. Which was fine at the time IMO. What resulted from it that I found most positive, though, was the regular window into their lives where Jax and Carly had a stable home, relatively stable marriage and Jax was an incredibly devoted father for her sons who loved him even though they had been taught to worship only Sonny and Jason.

Josh is Bruce Dern in Silent Running. (Google it)

They wouldn't do Jaxis even though everyone but Riche wanted it, but JFP did try him with Skye. That changed when Guza (and Brenda) came back. I think he was very strong as a surprisingly good husband and father for Carly and her kids, he was a stable and loving second father who raised her boys, and I don't think Carly as a character has ever fully recovered from how she fùcked him over when they broke up. But yes, aside from Carly (which would never have happened without LW) he has never had a strong foundational pairing since.

Blocked. And yes, I think Spencer and Trina barely speaking/sharing scenes since is not coincidence.

She cannot be gone soon enough (and she will be).

I blame the writing. She could be great. I would pair her up with Dante for awhile, probably nothing too serious but fun. Chase is hot but comes off and behaves like a little boy. And I'd give her fun mystery stories, chick lit or classic Lucy/Kevin-type stuff, and let her pick up the Maxie-type story slack when Maxie finally GTFO.

I think we've seen one sexy man (Jax) be Brenda's castoff for years and never fully shake the label so idk about that either. I agree with you, but we had that discussion at least once or twice lol. I fully believed Brenda had moved on and evolved past Sonny as early as '98 or so when Guza went full tilt with her and Jax and made it completely believable to me that she was above and beyond Sonny, especially when they met again that year. But all that's been undone in the decades since, and we can't change that. I also do think there is something particularly compelling about the older pair still sparking off each other but in an actual, functional long-term relationship or marriage as we so briefly saw, where conflict exists along with their natural idiosyncracies and where Brenda is the more active aggressor and canvas-shaker while Sonny is the more relaxed patriarch. That to me is more interesting as a later viewer than the Sonny/Brenda epic of the '90s which, while I can appreciate it now rewatching, was so omnipresent for me back then that it turned me off: Showing them grow and change and live within that space is what I found and find so interesting. Because no other woman has ever made Sonny come so close to change (and Nina is just a stalking horse).

Oh, is that all? I thought she came to Oakdale herself (I was under the impression Vicky never appeared in Oakdale alive).

Did Lila ever actually appear with Cass on ATWT? I thought she did briefly.

This deepfaked MTV News report on the crash is impressive.

Yeah, they played it wrong with them last time including the idiotic engagement to Jax (a go-to Ron always goes for with returning characters for no reason and did with Scott and Laura in an equally ridiculous subplot around the same time - there was no way those two would reunite again). But Brenda raising hell in town, antagonizing Carly, reconnecting with A.J. and Robin, even the Michael tease all worked for me because it was about her being central, able to be plugged in anywhere and shaking up the canvas. That is what she is best at and what she can do. Sonny has to come to her where she lives and especially after what happened to their marriage.

I don't forego her having a fling or two, sure. But any kind of triangle or ongoing serious storyline where I'm expected to sit through four to six months of weekly spoilers like "Brenda considers her feelings for Austin," I'm calling SWAT. As for Cody, I have earmarked him for the fling that gets single mom Liz's groove back and then who knows what. I will never give up on Sarah. But no Claudia and no more fuckin' kids for Sonny.

Embarrassing. Haberman and Jonathan Swan openly woo DeSantis as the next Great Media Republican Hope, trying to fluff him up as being the latest Not Trump. Good luck.

I just don't see a need to squire Brenda around with a bunch of random dudes at this point. No man on the canvas is a match for her now, even Sonny isn't but that is where the fanbase is, that is where the money is, it's where the audience and potentially even a numbers bump is so reunite them, do it right, humble him for her and keep it moving. Nobody is here to watch Brenda with Chase or Cody or Dante or Johnny or Swinging Dick X or anyone else any more than they were over a decade ago.

It's cheap and AFAIK they don't care about the product beyond that and non-controversial stories that keep the lights on and it making them some coin.

There's no need. It's Sonny, end of. I am in the minority in that I kind of like Cody. Like I keep saying, there are worse characters and concepts on the show than Josh Kelly playing a hunky stablehand who is related to Mac. Dump the Dominique thing and you have plenty to do with him to let him be the handsome stud for any number of women (like single mom Liz having a nonserious fling with him, something I think I've talked about it). His introduction was ugly and botched but as he is, I don't see an issue.

It was that whole crew. Nonstop.

I am with @carolineg, I always liked Molly Burnett. The mistake was Dena then trying to center the show around her, tearing down characters like Nick for her, etc. Jamey Giddens and DC making a hue and cry against Molly their mission in life also heavily shifted fandom perception online IMO. They acted like anyone they didn't like was a 'hair model' and could not act, and that was never the case with Burnett.

You literally just watched something I timestamped and texted you, you scum! Time to complain on my abandoned status feed.

I don't remember that at all! I thought the 'hiding from bad guys' angle only came in when PC began. I didn't remember that mob element at all from their final scenes at the grave, I'll have to go back and rewatch. Was it Smith's organization or someone else? I thought he was preoccupied with Luke and Laura at that time.

That's the way to do it, yes.

IIRC Scott left town after getting his heart broken by Katherine's con re: Dominique, and Lucy exposing Katherine at her and Scott's wedding in late late '93, like November or December, like right at the same time L&L came back. (That Scott/Katherine romance happened way too fast after Dom IMO) I assumed Kin was going off to try primetime and movies again. I do remember Scott having a very good scene or two with Laura before that. I never knew this. I do know they were pushing Scott and Lucy in story (not necessarily together) hard under Riche pre-Labine, when the show was flailing about trying to find anything that worked after Monty II, like Karen, Jagger, the new teens, Scott and Dominique, etc.